Did you ever have one of those weeks where your plans are just off? This has been the week for me. I messed up my calendar and stood up a friend. I’m mortified but reminded that I’m human. Which, is a very good thing to be reminded of on a periodic basis.

I’m not the only one struggling. Another friend called me in a panic about a bill that was going to be past due in one day! The due date was in June. Luckily, I had just had the same problem – not knowing what month it is- so I was able to reassure her that all is well and the planet is still spinning. But in the meantime, I didn’t post my Throwback Thursday that I promised. I’m late.

All of this relates to my project today. Calendars and what month is it? Well, it’s May. But, I have a June Shadowbox project to share with you. I purchased a super 12×12 shadowbox frame last year from a local store that has lots of coupons (wink, wink). It opens from the front making it easy to swap out the contents. I’ve been slowly working on creating a different mixed media page for each month. I didn’t have June yet, but now I do thanks to our beachy April Paper Pumpkin.

You can see that I used papers and punched images from the kit as well as the stamps.

I used a 12×12 sheet of Dapper Denim to support the DSP as the base.

The base cardstock squares in Island Indigo and Calypso Coral are 3-1/2″.

I used the soon to be released Sea of Textures and the matching die set to create the coral and the netting on the June square.

The Seas the Day sentiment is from So Many Shells – this set is retiring. By the Tide (a retired set) provided many of the of the other sea images.

It was June, so I had to give a nod to the Father’s Day holiday. I used the retired Going Global for the wind rose and the soon to retire Teeny Tiny Wishes for the holiday sentiment.

Aren’t those starfish cute on the lighthouse square? They’re the centers from the sand dollar dies that will be coming out in June.

The gold embossed sand dollar is a very old set – Natures Wonders from 2002. It just shows you what high quality the Stampin Up! products are. That stamp is older than my car and still going strong!

SUMMER- the letter dies are an investment, but wow what you can do with them. I used a flimsy piece of no-name patterned paper I had in my stash because I liked the netting vibe it had. To make them usable, I cut the same letters from the protective cardstock that comes in the DSP packs, thick white, has a sticker on it. Don’t throw that away! The dies cut through the thicker paper with no problems and I was able to glue the thin paper letters onto that thick backing and pop them onto the shadowbox page with Dimensionals.

In just a couple more weeks, I’ll swap out my May page with this one in. Instant decoration for my home and it might help me with my calendar problem. Maybe.

The In Colors for 2018-2020 are vibrant and fun. Opening the new inkpads reminded me of the first day of school when you pop open your new pack of crayons and you can’t decide what color to use first because they’re all so pretty. The new cases are really cool too. They open like a compact and then slide back into place. The cases are tighter than the previous design. So, while it may take some adjustment, I think the inks will remain fresher longer without reinking.

Speaking of improvements, the new ink has an anti-foam agent. This means that even if your ink pad is really juicy, you won’t get bubbles in your image. Yay! And, the cases stack. You can pull out all the colors you want to work with, and they won’t be sliding all over your workspace.

In the coming weeks, I’ll try to showcase all the new colors that have been incorporated into the standard color collections, Regals, Subtles, Brights and Neutrals. But for now, enjoy these quick note cards I made with your new In Colors: Blueberry Bushel, Call Me Clover, Grapefruit Grove, Lovely Lipstick and Pineapple Punch. These colors are available to preorder during the month of May.

I used the In Color DSP, with a strip of the matching cardstock. Organza ribbon conceals the seam between the two papers. The stamp is from a soon to be released bundle – Stitched All Around and a die from the same set.

The April Paper Pumpkin, You Are My Anchor, is packed with ocean-themed stamps and punched image and tags. The kit is designed to make four sets of five 3×3 cards that fit inside a cute box. My DayInkers Paper Pumpkin party people loved putting this set together. They were so excited about this kit, they started early. The filled boxes would make a great gift, but the sentiments on the cards are also perfect for graduation, thank you, congratulations and gifts. A truly versatile kit.

You can see in this picture, the box is in the upper left-hand corner and the five cards with envelopes fit inside.

Of course, with all of those punch pieces and seven sentiments and seven small images and two large images, I had to make some alternates.

This box of five cards used some different dies I have in my stash. The “love” card would be perfect for a wedding gift because marriage is an adventure!

The sun in the “boat” card is from Swirly Scribbles. This die set is so versatile. The sentiment on this card is from the June 2017 Paper Pumpkin.

The texture on the “lighthouse” card is from the retired Cheerful Tags die set. I used it because I liked the wave-like cutouts in the pattern. I think the card would be just as cute without it, or with some stamped vellum.

Three by three cards are fantastic, but we all like to mail those full sized cards. Here are the alternates I came up with.

I couldn’t just do cards. So I also did this tag.

And this 6×6 Brag Book page. The inserts in the envelopes are designed to hold the pictures and you can journal on the round punch piece.

I’ll have one more post for you on this kit. A 12×12 Shadowbox that I’ll post on Thursday.

Hope all of you are having a crafty weekend. If you want to get in on the fun and subscribe to Paper Pumpkin, click here.